News, West Midlands
Luke TomkinsonWolves fans enjoying a few local drinks after Sunday’s win over Tottenham Hotspur were able to rejoice in style when head coach Vitor Pereira joined them to celebrate.
The 4-2 victory takes the team 14 points clear of the relegation zone, giving fans much to cheer about.
But according to Moon Under Water shift supervisor – and avid Wolves fan – Luke Tomkinson, it was Pereira doing a lot of the chanting as he was mobbed by fans when he appeared in the city centre pub early Sunday evening.
“As a Wolves fan I was loving it, as a [Wetherspoons] manager I was hating it because a lot of my staff had already clocked out by this point,” he said.
Mr Tomkinson said he missed the now adulated head coach after Wolves’ game against Ipswich, so he was excited when his door staff told him on Sunday “the big man is coming”.
“The first thing [I thought] was ‘Oh my god is Tim Martin [Wetherspoons founder] on his way in? Oh my god we need to get the pub up to shape’,” he said.
“He said ‘no, no, the Wolves manager is coming in’ and I was like ‘Oh thank god. I missed him last week. I can see him tonight.’
He said the team’s assistant manager came in first with friends, fans noticed and began talking to them before he video called Pereira.
“You could see Vitor, I guess, in his bedroom or whatever.”
“A load of fans start crowding round the phone and chanting,” he said, “I don’t know if he was planning on coming in originally or not, but he sees all these fans chanting and he says, ‘guys, guys, I’m on my way in’ and obviously everyone cheers and goes mad.”
He appeared within the hour and “already had five or six pints in waiting for him” from fans, Mr Tomkinson said.
“It was funny because every time a taxi pulled up, everyone went tense, everyone went quiet. Every time a random customer walked into the pub everyone starts cheering and chanting Pereira’s name – the poor customers were confused as anything.”
Getty Images“When the main man comes in, everyone burst into rounds of applause, [and] chants start going.
“Vitor starts hugging fans – it wasn’t like fans were going to hug him, Vitor was going up to the fans, shaking hands.
“People were FaceTiming parents saying ‘Say hi to my dad’. Vitor was doing Wolves chants with these random people’s parents – it was unreal.”
Mr Tomkinson said he tried to remain professional when he finally got to meet him.
“I went shake his hand and he grabbed me in an embrace and I thought: ‘That’s not what I was expecting’.”
He said given today’s football environment was “full of ego”, Pereira seemed genuine.
